It’s been a long while since I last been overseas. Last Sunday, I had a chance to go overseas. Well, quite literally over the waters. I went to Sentosa.

In the last year that I hadn’t been there, many things have indeed changed – starting from the monorail station, to the stations on the sunny island that’s set in the… sea, to the landscape at Sentosa. I remembered going there frequently with a friend, and his friends for games of beach volleyball. However, he has since married and I guess that’s when the ball stops to.

Oh well…

Thankfully, I am going over to Sentosa for more fun things last Sunday! As everyone knows… the latest attraction at Sentosa is…

The Resort WorldThe Universal Studios…

Well, actually, both the Resort World and the Universal Studios are probably the newest attractions at Sentosa. The only thing is – I don’t gamble and the rides are not ready. At least not till… when? July? Nonetheless, despite me not getting squashed in the queue just to get a view of the Studios for 10 bucks, and not knowing that I can now use my EZ-Link card for the monorail ride; and not knowing that I do not have to keep the card for re-entry into each of the stations on the sunny island, I did get to try out an attraction that was new to me!

It’s the Sentosa 4D magix, thing of a magic (or thingymajiggy).

Of course, this is not to be confused with Singnet’s Singtel Magix, which is all about having at least 512kbps direct ATM connection straight to your doorstep without you having to share your bandwidth with 138,034 other people in the estate that you stay in – or 1,231,928 other people near where you are staying!

Sorry, I digressed.

So, while we were all on the monorail to Imbiah Station, we caught a glimpse of Resort World Sentosa (RWS) and all the construction work around it. We met Mr. Merlion after we got off, and after crossing a river and climbing 2 hills, we reached what I thought was Sentosa’s 4D Magix after a short walk.

I didn’t read what Sentosa 4D Magix was all about because I thought that it would spoil all the fun. After all, there’s always the famous circular statement of “expecting the unexpected”, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to put myself in such a situation. I somehow suspect that my attitude towards this has something to do with how mundane Singapore has been; but after looking at Chile and Haiti, Bangkok and Indonesia, I think mundane is good (speaking of which, I really hope that the victims can get the help that they need and it’s really be an unfortunate event 🙁 ).

Nonetheless, it turned out that there were going to be 3 shows instead of just the 4D Magix. There were the Desperados, which was a shooting game and the Extreme Log Ride (“Himalaya-Amazon”?). If you have joined a Wii Party before, Desperados is just like one helluva Wii Party + Ride, where 21 people, seated in a dark room on a 20-cent kiddy horse back, tries to shoot targets with a Wii gun. The horse back actually moved! And while I was expecting a Rodeo-style ride, thank goodness it didn’t do more than just shaking vigourously 🙂

Not claiming marksmanship, I came in 2nd for the 2 games in Desperados. Heh.

The second ride was a “log ride”. There were about 9 “cabins”, each seating 6 people in a cinema-like threatre, where each cabin is one of those machines which probably has the ability to propel you onto the screen if you didn’t have t0 fasten your seat belt. Heh. I took no chances and kept my precioussssssss Nikon close to me. The thing about this log ride is that it’s 3D and if you immerse yourself into the ride, it really feels like you are on a roller coaster – minus the fear.

Of course, when the 2nd ride was over, I was almost screaming for more. While I am almost tempted to blurt out what to expect, I think this will really spoil the fun. I mean, we all know that there are 3D movies and they are not as novel as they used to be – despite still having absolutely fabulous effects; have you ever wondered what 4D is all about?

For a good whole week before the trip, I was wondering what dimenions there are. We have visual and sounds already, then dimensionality for the 3D effects. Smell? Time travel? Space travel? While I will prefer not to blurt it out (although I kinda suspect that some 1,349 people have already talked about it in their blogs), I am going to give a teaser.

If you have watched Avatar in 3D and if you remember the part where you were supposed to be flying in 3D… well, what is 3D without the elements of the surrounding? What if you could… feel the wind… smell the smell and taste the water? Or what if you could feel *pain* when the person in the movie is being hit? Sounds scary eh? *ouch*

Spilling a little more… I was pretty afraid when insects and nocturnal creatures started appearing in front of me in a menacing manner. It felt as if I was going to be stung by it – and it’s not just about the sheer size of the insects on the screen, but the feeling of them being right next to you!

So without spoiling the fun, perhaps it’s a good time to check out the place before the Universal Studio opens and the entire island gets packed with people. And while you are checking out, bring along a jacket, a cap and wear long pants or jeans if you are easily crept out.

😉

Special thanks go out to 24seven for organizing this outing, and to Kris who had to burn his weekend attending to us and making sure that we were well fed and giving ample warnings that the best place for our cameras during the show… is the bag 🙂